Bob Dylan Picked Up by Cop Who Didn't Recognize Him

If there's one thing I learned from The Wire, it's that if you're ever arrested, you should give the cops a fake name. That's why I always say I'm Bob Dylan in the presence of police officers. It never works. But apparently it doesn't even work for Bob Dylan: ABC News is reporting that Dylan was picked up by a police officer in New Jersey in July after someone called the cops about an old man wandering around their neighborhood during a rain storm, and the cop who picked him up didn't recognize him and thought he was lying about being Bob Dylan.

"So I said "OK Bob, what are you doing in Long Branch?," officer Kristie Buble asked him. "He said he was touring the country with Willie Nelson and John Mellencamp. So now I'm really a little fishy about his story. I did not know what to believe or where he was coming from, or even who he was ... He was acting very suspicious. Not delusional, just suspicious. You know, it was pouring rain and everything."

After Dylan failed to show identification, the officers put the 68-year-old in the back of the car and took him to the nearby, seaside Ocean Place Conference Resort, where his tour buses were parked before the tour's July 23rd outdoor gig in nearby Lakewood, NJ. Once at the hotel, Dylan, who Long Branch Police Department Sgt. Michael Ahart described as "really cool about the whole incident," provided a legit ID.

Later when asked why he had been walking in the rain, Bob Dylan told the police, "I just felt like going for a walk."

I think that Dylan quote is the best part of this story. Classic Bob. [Spinner]